Berhampur, Nov. 11: Here are two pieces of news that will evoke contrasting emotions in you. While the move to improve infrastructure at the stadium has suffered a setback, a plan is in place to better the city's water supply scenario in another two years.

The master plan for infrastructure development eludes Berhampur Stadium as the state government has failed to move four residential quarters of the defence ministry from the premises since 1989.

The master plan for infrastructure development of the stadium was prepared for 17.683 acres, of which 8.5 acres belong to the state sports and youth services department and the remaining 9.183 acres to the defence ministry, said district sports officer, Ganjam, Akshaya Kumar Patnaik.

Sports secretary Vishal Dev, who visited the stadium today, said: "We will take up the matter with the Government of India shortly. I have asked the stadium-in-charge to come to me with the file concerned within November 15. I will discuss the matter with defence ministry officials in New Delhi."

The state government has to hand over another plot to the defence ministry in lieu of the said land that houses residential quarters of NCC officials.

In September 2005, the defence ministry agreed to vacate the land in lieu of another plot of land within Berhampur and payment of Rs 88 lakh for relocation. The state government had agreed to provide 9.183 acres of land to the defence ministry at Ambapua in the city.

However, the state government approached the defence ministry seeking exemption from the payment of Rs 88 lakh. But the defence ministry has not responded to this.

The defence ministry also built a polyclinic for ex-servicemen on the Barracks Ground. Berhampur Development Authority's former chairman Sarat Ranjan Patnaik said the defence ministry had not sought any approval from the planning authority for the polyclinic at that time.

Official sources said all these issues would be taken up during discussion with the Defence ministry.

The state sports and youth services department has undertaken renovation of the stadium with an investment of Rs 1 crore. However, the master plan has not been finalised because of the land problem, said an official.

On the water supply front, the Rs 452-crore Janibili project, which aims to supply water to the city, will be completed by November 3, 2018, executive engineer of the corporation's public health and engineering department (PHED) Sitaram Panda has said.

Larsen and Tubro (L&T), which will carry out the construction, has completed the detailed survey of the project area. The company signed an agreement with the state government on October 22 and the date of commencement of the project will be November 4, Panda said, adding that construction would start by the end of this month.

The company will now prepare the detailed design of the project from the survey data. This design has to be approved by the public health and engineering department, Panda said. The government is now in the process of signing a deal with Authority Engineers, which was chosen through the tender process, for supervising the project. This will be made official shortly. The PHED has also opened a new project division office and an L&T project office here to coordinate the plan.

Four committees - project clearance, land, monitoring and maintenance - will be formed with senior government officers for speedy implementation of the project.

The Rs 452-crore project envisages building 24 reservoirs in four zones, construction of 17 overhead tanks and installing a metering system for 30,000 consumers. The city requires at least 64 MLD of water. At present, Dakhinapur supplies around 26 MLD and Rushikulya 14 MLD. Another six MLD is managed from bore wells, said Panda.

The Janibili project will provide around 125 MLD of water to the city and 54 villages under 14 panchayats. The project will also be able to mitigate the drinking water problem of towns such as Aska and Hinjili in Ganjam district, he said.

Chief minister Naveen Patnaik had laid the foundation of the Janibili project on October 3, 2013.

Once implemented, this project will solve the drinking water crisis of the city till 2045. The city now requires 64 MLD of water for a population of 3.95 lakh and 9.9 MLD of water for 1.18 lakh people in 54 villages.

The water would be collected from various sources including Rushikulya, Sorada, Bhanjanagar and Harabhangi and stored in Janibili.